Sorry I missed posting last week! I was at the Closing the Gap conference in Minnesota, which is for Assistive Technology in Special Education. It is an amazing conference and I am all pumped up with fresh ideas to teach at my workshops and recommend to my teams! Below are the picks of the week. Check out towards the end of the "also free" section, there are some decent ones for middle and high school students!
Happy downloading!
Picks:
Early Childhood
Musical paint for kids by Building Blocks Media
normally $4.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/musical-paint-for-kids/id577535521?mt=8
This app has a visual scene where you can tap different items (sun, buildings) and it does a cute animation. If you tap on a door and you are able to create some artwork and then sign your name. The reason this app sparked my interest is that one of the sessions I went to the Closing the Gap conference talked about giving kids meaningful times to work on writing his or her name besides when they are in OT. Like the presenters recommended, it is not tracing their name, but gives them a chance to write their name wherever they are in the process (random scribbles or letters, first letter, etc.)
Elementary
Learn A(1) Library - Learn to Read Books by Visions Encoded Inc
normally $9.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/level-1-library-learn-to-read/id421747871?mt=8
Comes with 12 level one books that have one sentence with repetitive patterns. If you want to hear the sentence, you tap on each word individually (I tried it in iOS8 with speak screen, but it claimed it had no content to read). Each book has sight word flash cards. The books are aimed for young children, not older students.
*Also available on the Mac store (i.e. for your Mac computer)
Middle-High School
Cam Scanner HD PRo by IntSig Information Co
normally $4.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camscanner-hd-pro/id569846869?mt=8
Many of the students I support are reading below grade level and need to have things read to them on the fly (following copyright law/for students with print disabilities). I feel like I have tried a million scanners with OCR (optical character recognition). I'm exaggerating of course, but my experience has been that I take the picture and when I do the OCR, it only gets a portion of it correctly (rest is garbage and then text to speech is spelling everything). This one worked fairly well. After it did it's thing, I opened it into Pages and was able to use the speak selection/speak screen feature in accessibility features to read to me. I also had options to open it in several other apps I use for text to speech. It still got several words wrong with the OCR, but it's been the best results I have had so far. However, I'm always looking for a better solution, especially one that does all the features (I have been disappointed on my search so far). So PLEASE, if you also have a good scanner + OCR + Text to speech app, please email me!
Also free today!
First words book and kids puzzle box by Anlock
Normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moms-with-apps/id489528976?mt=8
Kids calculate math basics - learn to count, add and subtract by Marius Versteegen
Normally $2.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kidscalculate-math-basics/id910059904?mt=8
Baby butterfly by Linnea Falkemzn (cause and effect)
Normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-butterfly-mini-games/id906517227?mt=8
Grandma loves bugs by Fairlady Media
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grandma-loves-bugs/id666526099?mt=8
Wee Kids Math Path by Ebooks & Kids (operations)
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wee-kids-math-path/id652862438?mt=8
Halloween Party app by Together Learning Media(trivia game)
normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halloween-party-app/id660209252?mt=8
Football Run! by Sanjay Watwani
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/football-run!/id892156088?mt=8
A B C Writing learn how to write by rana nir
normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-b-c-writing-learn-how-to-write/id927851918?mt=8
ASL emergency signs by software studios
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asl-emergency-signs/id505475985?mt=8
Halloween jokes for kids by Appetizers
Normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halloween-jokes-for-kids/id873291751?mt=8
Hoopa City by Tribeplay
normally $2.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hoopa-city/id881404173?mt=8
Fishland adventures by Synchronise
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id920765764?mt=8
*Also on Google Play
Crossword adventure for kids by rob ellis
normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crossword-adventure-for-kids/id574197354?mt=8
Beyond Cats! Grade 2 Math standards- practice common core by maypopdesigns
normally $2.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beyond-cats!-grade-2-math/id879934494?mt=8
Fun Spanish Course by Studycat
normally $12.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fun-spanish-course-by-studycat/id862451311?mt=8
eBook Time Machine: Age of the Emperors by AndUpwards
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ebook-time-machine-age-emperors/id494205506?mt=8
The Wee adventures of shabu shabu book 1 - the jade legend by steam powered productions
normally $3.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wee-adventures-shabu-shabu/id609442283?mt=8
Three Spinning Women - bedtime fairy tale by iBigToy
normally $4.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/three-spinning-women-bedtime/id431059844?mt=8
The Wild Swans - bedtime fairy tale interactive book by iBig Toy
normally $4.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wild-swans-bedtime-tale-story/id432283551?mt=8
Snow Child - bedtime fairy tale interactive book by iBig Toy
normally $4.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snow-child-bedtime-fairy-tale/id432734815?mt=8
OneList - Reminders Widget for 1 List by haha Interactive
normally $0.99
*For iOS 8 only
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onelist-reminders-widget-for/id921570828?mt=8
OTYS Tasks by OTYS Recruiting Technology
normally $5.99
https://itunes.apple.com/cy/app/otys-tasks/id511347420?mt=8
OTYS Calendar by OTYS Recruiting Technology
normally $5.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/otys-calendar/id518319603?mt=8
Prioriti by Abubakar Mohammed
normally $0.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prioriti/id909163922?mt=8
Pomodoro - Focus Booster by TechBase (timer)
normally $5.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pomodoro-focus-booster/id567913618?mt=8
CA 6th Math by Teeneinstein (ratios, proportions, number system, statistics, probability, geometry, expressions and equations)
normally $2.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ca-6th-math./id616582415?mt=z
Slader by Slader (calculus)
normally $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slader/id579962583?mt=8
